Hey there LOVELY people! I can’t believe it is already October! Hope you all are making it a great one! This month we are talking about emerging. I have a thing for the thesaurus and a dictionary so I will look up a word in a hot second to make sure I am using it correctly.  I took a look at the definition of emerging and I saw some powerful phrases. I found “to move out or away”, “to surface”, “to come into view”. My favorite definition was “to come to the end of a difficult period or experience.” I was like Yaaaaassssss! That’s what I was looking for!

When you are in the process of emerging from something, that is a very pivotal time in your life. You have to set boundaries! I spent so much of my life in the dark, it was difficult for some to handle me moving in my light. This light changed the way I carried myself, the way I spoke, the way I dressed, the way I allowed others to treat me, and the decisions I made. This place will cause you to put people in their correct “seat” in your life. You will realize that you had folks in the front row that need to be in the balcony! Maybe even in the lobby with no ticket! Sometimes we connect with others through pain and insecurities–when that part of you heals that connection is broken. You can continue to try to keep it, but God will continue to show you things that further prove that point. During this time, you have to protect your process, your peace, and your purpose. Let’s unpack that.

During your process, you’re putting together the pieces. You may not understand, so it’s impossible to expect someone else to understand. It’s YOUR process. This is an opportunity to assess situations, learn about yourself and those around you, and allow God to reveal who He needs you to be. The process can be a daunting and sometimes lonely place. The company you keep during this time can either push you forward, push you backwards, or keep you stuck. Just trying to live a life pleasing to God can convict and intimidate others, but that’s not your battle to fight. They have to want more of Him for themselves. They can either follow you as you follow Christ, or you will have to move their “seat”. Because everyone couldn’t be close to your process, all they know is who you were. They have no idea who you have evolved into! This requires you to retrain people how to treat you. During my emergence of self-esteem issues, I had someone tell me “you don’t act like you think you’re ugly anymore.” Mind you, it was not in a celebratory tone. Ummmm there were so many ways that could have been addressed, at that moment I put up my church finger in my head and moved that “seat.”  You can still love them, they just can’t be close to your process! You owe no one an explanation for your healthy growth! Some people like you better broken, it makes their broken places look healthy.

Now let’s talk about peace. Peace is an inward sense of completeness, wholeness, and calmness. This is the peace that God gives. Having peace does not mean that everything is going perfect, it does mean that you have the perspective that God is healing, working, and moving even though our results are not tangible. If those around you have beliefs or opinions that are contrary to what you believe to be true about your situation, they can ruin your peace. There have been many conversations that have been cut short for the sake of my peace! Especially when I was out of work. When people don’t understand how you are coping with a situation they would almost die in, they come for your peace! Your peace irritates people! Don’t let them take it, girl! You can gracefully shut down someone that tries to attack something you are trying to protect.

Lastly, we have to protect our purpose. Your process leads you to your purpose. How you handle your process determines your tenacity to pursue your purpose. This is why you have to protect your peace because it helps you handle things well. Every situation, issue, and disappointment has led me to this place. I haven’t always protected my process, peace, or purpose. When you know better, you do better. My purpose demands that there are some relationships and conversations I can’t entertain. There are activities I can’t be attached to and places I probably shouldn’t go. Those things may not be conducive to my purpose or the ones attached to it. Your purpose is not just about you! It’s about those God has called you to lead or serve. People will sometimes watch your life and use it as a model of how they should follow Christ. You can be dripping with anointing, but if your moral character isn’t right you lose trust and credibility and still end up ineffective. How does your life look in the lens of someone that wants to grow in Christ? Can they see your light? Are you bearing fruit?

One thing about a process is that it can be continual. We may be in one process now, and in another in a matter of months. We should constantly be evolving and growing. Once we conquer one mountain we should be like “God what’s next, what else do I need to work on or give up? How can I work on this character flaw?” We often want to bypass the process. As painful or awkward as it may be, it is essential to our development towards our purpose. God does not use me because I don’t complain about my process, because I do everything right, because my face has been delivered, or because my thoughts are just full of the Lord. He uses me because I am willing to be used. As reluctant as I can be, I still yield to Him. I open myself up to allow Him to pour into me so that I can pour into others.

So, what will your emergence look like? Everyone’s emergence will look different, and prayerfully there will be many emergence moments in our lives as we continue to transform and grow in God. I am so thankful for my many emergence moments. Without them, you would not be reading this. I wanted to be invisible. I was perfectly fine with none of you knowing anything about me. I’m one of those “the less you know about me, the better we get along” type of girls. I wanted to walk around blind and deaf to what was around me so I didn’t have to feel or live up to what God had for me to do. Those mentalities would have left me in my dark places, so I would never be able to help someone else come out of theirs. My need to be obedient superseded my need to just be left alone.

I had to learn to protect those areas in order to continue to grow, learn and develop into my full potential. Just like there are some that were waiting for me to produce this blog, someone is waiting for you to walk in your purpose as well. Someone needs to know how you made peace in your process and how it led you to your purpose. We have to be the key that unlocks someone else’s prison. I WISH I had this resource, but instead He has given me beauty for my ashes and is allowing me to BE the resource. I pray that God continues to be with us in the process by giving us His perfect peace. That He would lead us to seek Him for what He needs us to do in the earth that only we can do. That we would protect that very thing and be a good steward over what He has us to do and the people connected to it. Let’s emerge y’all!